Sov Block
The Sov-Block is a political entity comprising of East Meg Two and its affiliated cities and colonies. It's a known rival of Mega-City One and the Sino Block. Inhabitants are called "the Sovs" by foreigners. Members * East Meg One (until destroyed in 2104) * East-Meg Two * Megagrad * New Glasnost City * Chernobyl Collective * Siberia * The Solovetsky Islands (aka Gulag Archipelago) * Space colonies 1988's The Judge Dredd Mega-Special #1 said that the location of the Sov-cities was classified by the Block authorities; the "Dredd's World" map shows the Block covering the Warsaw Pact, most of China, the Korean peninsular, Mongolia, and Scandinavia. Most of this was retconned as being seperate polities: Czech Protectorate, Sino Block, Korea, Mongolia, and the Scandinavian Confederacy. History Sometime before 2050, Russia and possibly other states had undergone a communist revival. It entered the world aeroball championships in 2050 with the Siberian Wolves team narrowly losing to the Harlem Heroes. By 2070, the communist states had formed the Union of Soviet Mega-Cities. At the dawn of the Atomic War, they were one of the loudest foreign voices ordering the US to stand down.Origins Following the war's devastation, the survivors became known as the Sov-Block and, until after 2100, Sov-Cities. Moscow-St-Petersburg was renamed "East Meg" after the war, starting a trend.Dredd Year One - Wear Iron by Al Ewing The post-war Sov Block suffered from mutations, diseases, and conflicts with the rival Sino-Block. They also gained a reputation for cheating at international sports events. At some point, psychic Judge-Inspectre Victor Zadek put down the Salyut Uprising and ended the Siberian Oil Wars.The Inspectre: Requiem The Sino-Sov-Megacity Wars raged in the 2070s as a result of the post-nuclear chaos.Megazine 2.31: "Armitage" Open conflict had ended by the end of the century, but covert assets like Orlok were used to fight a covert war. The Sino Block quietly armed separatist militias along the Sov Block borders.Prog 1912: "Orlok: Eurozone" There was a Neo-Perestroika explosion of insane hyper-capitalism in early East-Meg Two, a desperate and unsustainable attempt to fake capitalist prosperity and ignore the grim realities. This failed after a few short years. Wetworks by Dave Stone, referring to the miserable aftermath as a "state of affairs that had persisted until well after the Apocalypse War" While the East-Megs were allies, they had separate governments and agendas - both sent their top assassins, Orlok (EM-1) and the Black Widower (EM-2), to Oz on the same mission in 2101, unaware of the other.Orlok: The Rasputin Caper Cold war tensions grew between the Sov-Block and Mega-City One, growing to encompass the American moon colony of Luna-1. Sov Judges had encompanied their athletes to the 2100 Lunar Olympics and when one of them was killed, the Sovs declared war. They lost and Luna-1 gained control of Sov-Block territory.Prog 50-51 Following that, East-Meg One - the dominant Sov city - stepped up its espionage against Mega-City One in preparations for the Apocalypse War. When the Apocalypse War broke out in 2104, the rest of the Sov-Block stayed out in order to keep Mega-City Two and Texas City from joining. East-Meg One lost and was nuked out, leaving East-Meg Two in charge (and besieged by survivors). In a discussion in 2127, the destruction of East-Meg One was considered to have ended the Sov Block as a "coherent geopolitical force".Psykogeddon With the tacit approval of East-Meg Two, various survivors would attempt revenge attacks against Mega-City One. In 2112, under Supreme Judge Josef Traktorfactori, a new spirit of glasnost broke out and Orlock & his followers were denounced as terrorists. The Sov-Block and Mega-City One began to team up against mutual threats such as the Deros, Judgement Day, and the Face of Mars. In 2113, Traktorfactori and Chief Judge McGruder had direct talks about restricting Sino-Cit expansion into deep space.A Clockwork Pineapple There were also goodwill exchanges of citizens that gave MC-1 a large minority of Sov and Sov-descended citizens, and even the construction of a city (New Glasnost City). Unknown to the Block, Mega-City One also had a mole in the East-Meg Two Diktatorat''Meet Jonny Kiss'' Under the Global Lunar Partnership Treaty, the Sov-Block became one of multiple city-states involved in Luna-1. They sent cosmonaut judges and agreed to protect its independence. Glasnost ended abruptly in 2115 when Jonny Kis whacked Traktorfactori. In 2118, the Sovs tried to build the new city of Megagrad on the ruins of East-Meg One. The new city was plagued by hauntings from the angry dead. In the mid-2120s, the Sov Block was resurgent. It cracked down on separatists in its remote areas (who the Sinos backed as deniable proxies). Meanwhile, in 2122 Mega-City One had a standing moritorium on any non-essential trade with the Sov cities.Dredd vs Death novel by Gordon Rennie In 2125, Sov forces invaded anarchic Mongolia and engaged in the Mongolian Clearances; over half a million people died in the storming of Ulan Bator.Megazine 247 The following year, the Block used deniable assets to destabilise Luna-1 so they could send military forces to 'assist' and take control of the colony. Judge Dredd thwarted this.Eclipse novel by James Swallow The clone Anatoli Grigorivich Kazan was allowed to use 'forgotten' MC-1 prisoners to draw Mega-City Judges into a trap, sparking a shooting match between the two Judge forces; and after that, use Sov spies and assassins to target Dredd through his niece Vienna. That last attempt spooked the Secretariat. Fearing Kazan was pursuing a private vendetta that could start a war, they tried to have him executed. He fled to Mega-City One custody and informed them that the Sovs were secretly backing a coup attempt in wartorn Ciudad Barranquilla. Mega-City One prevented this coup at the eleventh hour in 2128 by decapitating Judge Supremo Sangrenegra themselves and convincing Judge Cholo to be their man instead of the Sovs. The Block complained to the global community, trying to present Mega-City One as the only aggressor.Megazine #246-9: "Regime Change" The separatist war was won near the Mongolian border, only for the authorities to lose interest. By 2133 the locals were ignored and left at the mercy of bandits and rad-pirates. One pirate group, the Red Sky Commandos, was wiped out by the Samizdat Squad.Samizdat Squad: Red Skies The horrors of Chaos Day, caused by Sov terrorists, led to East-Meg Two offering food aid to the stricken Mega-City One. As part the deal, MC-1 was going to deport its Sov citizens (who were now in interment camps for their own safety) back to the Block but Dredd proposed a compromise deal: sending them to a reclaimed "Sovsec" in former Mega-City Two. East-Meg was unhappy but allowed it. In the possible 2170s shown in Red Razors, the Sovs of East-Meg Two - renamed Sov-Block 2 have gone hyper-capitalist and worshipped American cultural icons like Elvis as if he was Jovus; the aging communist terror group the OAP-KGB fought back with bombing campaigns. Convicts like Red Razors were brainwashed into being Judges and genetic engineering led to talking horses. East-Meg One was rebuilt as Sov-Block One but only a group of insane Judges still want to live there. The Chief Judge was Ricky, a rich thirteen-year-old who'd bought the former East-Meg Two,until he was murdered by the OAP-KGB. The new Chief Judge Yeltsin offered the neurosurgery process that created Razors to foreign megacities in 2176. In return, he wanted Mega-City One's ultimate weapon, Armageddon X (a cryogenically frozen Dredd). Razor's programming was damaged and he ran riot, spreading death and chaos throughout Sov-Block Two until Dredd was released and executed him.The Hunt for Red Razors Government and Judges Nominally, the Sov-Block is run on communist lines and it condemns the western megacities as decadent imperialists. In practice, the Sov-Block is often more oppressive than Mega-City One. While many of East-Meg Judges are true believers, Supreme Judge Bulgarin once famously asked "the people? What have they got to do with anything?". Party officials may take a liking to land and cleanse the locals from it under a pretext. Samizdat Squad: Grey Zone As with all the major powers, government, law, and military is run by the local Judges. All of the Sov-Block has the same judicial uniform and equipment. The ruling body is the Diktatorat, also called the Direktorat. Also mentioned is the Secretariat. Military forces include the robot Sentenoids, the Nu-Spetznaz, and a conventional military force; Judges are also used. The Omon Division are an elite military force that wipe out internal dissidents.Megazine 324 References Category: Locations